God will do the work

Wow, there is so much I could say, but I dont think I can express everything through words. I want to apologize to everyone for not being very consistent with this blog. I have had a lot on my mind and been pretty busy here. The ministry at the Ithemba has been productive, confusing, heartbreaking, but mostly awesome. I learn more every day and try to use each opportunity to love and learn. I found out that from January 6th- May 15th I will be in Swaziland doing some intense ministry within this troubled Kingdom.  So knowing that I have been excited about this amazing opportunity and extremely sad leaving the friends I have made here and the kids I work with everyday. I wanna talk about the Ithemba though cause that’s mostly what I have been doing. 

The Ithemba has been amazing. The kids there are a tough crowd. They have almost no discipline at all. They are very defensive and violent, but thats all they see. My job is just to be an example to them and try to show them  what a man is supposed to be according to God’s teachings. Since they can’t understand me speaking most of the time all I can do is just love them how Jesus loved and loves. I am able to communicate some hrough body language, my tone, and just trying to play with them and speak to them. All of our kids speak Xhosa (it’s pronounced like this, “Xh” which is a click in the back of the mouth with a lil spit and then somehow say “osa” along with the click haha) and they love it when I try to speak there language. One of the girls gave me a Xhosa name so the kids call me Luvuyo now. Luvuyo means person that brings you joy or happiness. So that was very encouraging and nice to have. 

There are 4 women that work at the ithemba all the time. I have gotten pretty close to them and hate to leave them. I sit and croquet with them sometimes and talk, its always an interesting conversation. Three of them have HIV and we arent sure about the other. Three of them also get beat by their husbands that take the $120 US dollars they make a month and get drunk with it. Fishing is a big industry here on the coast and the fisherman are all on strike, which has been causing a lot of riots, killings, and theft . There is one woman that I am really gona struggle leaving, her name is Lusunda. We work together teaching the 6-9 year olds math and english everyday. I got to go help build her new shack. I loved helping her but hated it at the same time because the materials they use to build these shacks are almost useless. The week after we put it together it rained real hard here and leaked all in her house. I hated building it with those materials because I knew that particle board for walls will leak. She just makes no money at all and her husband is on strike with the fisherman. Lusunda is a very strong woman who is raising her 6 year old son named Iya (he also comes to the ithemba all day with Lusunda.) The ithemba has a church service for the communities on sunday mornings that she sings at. I have been playing in the worship band on sundays there too. I love playing the african worship songs, they are so simple and passionate. We all dance a lot there too! Thinking of Lusunda kept me up the other night until like 2. I just hate leaving her in a worse situation than when I got here. I know that it is not I that does the work, but our Father in heaven. So all I can do is just pray for her really. Please pray for strength for Lusunda and for her son Iya, and that her husband would get his head on straight. I have talked to her husband, but he is very good at hiding what is really going on. 

I have a few friends here from Zimbabwe and they have been talking about all the economic problems and asking for prayer for their family and for their “people”. Hearing it all and the hopeless state they are in breaks my heart. 

Seeing all this corruption here in J-bay and hearing what is going on in other countries really angers me and gets me thinking on what we can do to help. The reality is that I cant fix anything, God will use me to fix what He wants fixed. When I looked at the kids the other day after talking to Trinos (a guy from Zimbabwe) about the problems going on, I saw a solution or a strategy if you want to call it that. Loving these kids with God’s love can change the future. I believe whole-heartedly in the power of God’s love. It can’t be a love out of obedience though, it has to be God’s love pouring out of me. I am learning to do that and live off of His spirit, because my flesh is weak but the spirit is strong.

I put a few photos up on my blog page if you wanna check that out. I put a picture of a boy named Coco on there. We go by and pick him up everyday and bring him to the Ithemba. He lives in a small shack with his alcoholic father. We try and give Coco a bath and clean his clothes once or twice a week. He doesn’t know how to do anything because he is always on his own and only  5 years old. The kids make fun of him a lot because he always smells so bad. He used to cry when I gave him a bath, but he has warmed up to me now. He sat in my lap at church on Sunday. I am having a hard time leaving these kids knowing they are gona have a lot of hardships as they grow up. So all I could do for Coco as he sat in my lap for the last time, was pray for him. Prayer is really all I can do for them as I leave. I have loved and taught them as much as I could, but it will have to be God that really changes their life around. I know that God loves them just as much as anyone else and He will be faithful to that. Please pray for Coco and many other kids just like him at the IThemba. 

This week we are going by and speaking to the women at the IThemba at their houses. This will be my last week working with the Ithemba. Next week is our last week before christmas break. My whole team will be going to St. Francis Bay for debrief of this semester and saying goodbye to a lot of teammates as I go to Swaziland until May. I will miss my friends and family this Christmas. I pray for you all. I love you and would love to hear from you if you could send me and email. I do not have much time to respond though. When I am in Swaziland, I won’t be able to talk hardly at all, the internet is next to nothing there. Peace and Love with Christ our Father.